Huge thumbdata4 file in DCIM folder

LuckyThirteen · Jul 1, 2015

I've recently discovered this issue on my HTC One M8. The .thumbnails folder was taking up about 6GB of space when I finally found it.

I deleted the contents and restarted my phone, the .thumbnails folder appears in empty when I look at it in Windows Explorer when it's connected to my PC, empty in file manager on my phone but no extra free space has turned up.

I've run the Thumbnail deleter .apk with no luck and saved a .txt with the same name in the .thumbnails folder and still nothing. Anyone else experienced the same problem?

OZON1 · Jul 13, 2015

LuckyThirteen said:
I've recently discovered this issue on my HTC One M8. The .thumbnails folder was taking up about 6GB of space when I finally found it.

I deleted the contents and restarted my phone, the .thumbnails folder appears in empty when I look at it in Windows Explorer when it's connected to my PC, empty in file manager on my phone but no extra free space has turned up.

I've run the Thumbnail deleter .apk with no luck and saved a .txt with the same name in the .thumbnails folder and still nothing. Anyone else experienced the same problem?

I have the same problem with you, my phone is HTC ONE MAX, and no luck so far...
Deleting the files or setting up a dummy file does nothing.
Disabling the gallery app also does nothing..

BHSPitMonkey · Sep 23, 2015

The reason deleting these files isn't giving you much free space in return is that they are "sparse files":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file

Basically, they appear to be larger than they really are. The filesystem is able to make them take up very little space because they are mostly empty.

OZON1 · Sep 23, 2015

Wow, didn't expect a reply after so long.
So according to the above explanation, basically we can just ignore the seemly huge thumbnail file?

BHSPitMonkey · Sep 24, 2015

cdl · Oct 27, 2015

BHSPitMonkey said:
The reason deleting these files isn't giving you much free space in return is that they are "sparse files":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file

Basically, they appear to be larger than they really are. The filesystem is able to make them take up very little space because they are mostly empty.

That's not what happened on my rooted Sony Z3 running Kitkat.

I had 5 GBs of thumbnails. I deleted them, but the available space stayed the same. I tried all that was suggested here, on xda and other forums, but to no avail. In the end I had to wipe the phone from recovery and reinstall everything. I have then deleted the /thumbnails folder and created an empty .thumbnails file. I'm hoping it will be sufficient to keep the problem from happening again. This bug is utterly unacceptable!

BHSPitMonkey · Oct 27, 2015

cdl said:
I had 5 GBs of thumbnails. I deleted them, but the available space stayed the same.

You have proven my point. The thumbnails were not *actually* consuming 5GB, which you verified when you deleted them and did not gain additional free space. Your disk space was probably mostly consumed by media, apps, and cache.

Teodor16 · Feb 5, 2016

ppero196 said:
I created a simple app that will do the job!
With a press of the button!

This app I think has damage my phone! It has deleted the thumbnails files but now I have a error because I don't have enough space on phone(before install this app the the free space from internal memory was about 300 mb and now is about 60mb) , but when I delete other files, my free space doesn't increase normaly... if I delete for example a 50 mb file it will increase with only 20-30 mb. I restarted my phone to be shure that is not a bug from android but it's exact the same... I think I will reset my phone.

Tmightymike · May 30, 2016

BHSPitMonkey said:
You have proven my point. The thumbnails were not *actually* consuming 5GB, which you verified when you deleted them and did not gain additional free space. Your disk space was probably mostly consumed by media, apps, and cache.

With the "show hidden files" option turned on, you should be able to see the .thumdata files in the thumbnails folder. They, apparently, are the true gluts (source: http://www.file-extensions.org/article/more-information-about-android-thumbdata-files). I've attached a screen grab showing my two files at a total of 6GB (i.e. it's not the thumbnails themselves that take up all the space).

I'll be closely studying the previously cited article before attempting anything that can permanently damage the system and file structure. Although I'm a big fan of wiping and reinstalling when necessary (it's like having a new phone again), I'm not ready to do that yet.

If anyone has any new or enlightening information, PLEASE SHARE.

Wish me lunch :-/

Mazhug · Sep 3, 2016

I have the same issue. Replacing the large .thumbdata files in the .thumbnail folder with an empty one works, that is until I open Snapchat and then the phone becomes almost unusable whilst all the thumbnails and large .thumbdata files reappear and hog more space again. If anybody has any ideas on why this is, it would be appreciated.

Huge thumbdata4 file in DCIM folder

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